FTOPS XI - Julian Verse Takes Event 4 and TOPTEN for Event 5

By Jennifer Newell
The fourth and fifth events of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) were filled with hold’em action and more than $430K in prize money. Both tournament guarantees were broken, and that puts FTOPS XI on its way to breaking all of the series’ previous records. And along with the usual excitement of the series, Julian Verse claimed another victory, only months after winning the main event of the tenth installment of FTOPS.
February 6 began with Event 4, the $300 + $22 no-limit hold’em triple shootout. The event was capped at 729, and that’s how many players came to the felt to break the $200K guarantee by pushing the prize pool up to $218,700. Full Tilt pro Scott Fischman was the host, and 2008 WSOP final tablist Scott Montgomery was the highest finishing notable player, taking 26th place honors.
When the final table was set, two names stood out - the aforementioned Julian Verse and lauraj111, who made the final table of Event 2 about 24 hours prior. All of the following players were seated with 243K in chips:
ClockWyze
Julian Verse
sentin
donivan31
jolly001
Thin_Hamster
lauraj111
PeachyMer
scrapper41
It was Thin_Hamster who became short-stacked very early in the match, finally moving his last 11,016 chips all-in with . jolly001 was the caller holding , and the board came . The full house sent Thin_Hamster packing in ninth place with $2,952.45 in prize money. jolly001 was on a roll, and when sentin pushed his last 55K into the pot preflop, jolly001 was there with the call and . sentin showed , but the flop brought a jack and a ten, giving jolly001 another pot and sending sentin away in eighth place with $4,155.30.
Suddenly, however, the tables turned. jolly001 hadn’t held on to his substantial stack and couldn’t resist the urge to be involved. When Dinovan31 pushed from the small blind with , jolly001 called all-in from the big blind with . The flop brought a pair of eights, but it was the jack on the turn that sent jolly001 out in a surprising seventh place, which was worth $6,123.60.
Next to be at risk was scrapper41, who pushed preflop with , only to find Julian Verse as the caller with pocket nines. The board blanked for scrapper41, who was ousted in sixth place with $8,748. PeachyMer then put it all on the line with pocket nines, but they weren’t so lucky against the of ClockWyze, who hit a king on the flop. PeachyMer was eliminated in fifth place with $12,028.50.
In the second final table in two days for lauraj111, it was time to push all-in with , but ClockWyze couldn’t stay away with pocket queens. The board came down with two kings and no ace, giving lauraj111 a fourth place finish and $16,402.50.
Donivan31 looked down at pocket aces and pushed all-in right away, and Julian Verse had to call with . But Julian Verse caught his cards when the board came , giving him trips to crack the aces of Donivan31 and sent him out in third place with $21,870.
Heads-up began with Julian Verse and his 1,358,402 chips, with ClockWyze with the shorter 828,598 stack. Julian Verse didn’t let up, finally pushing all-in with to try to end the tournament, and ClockWyze called all-in with pocket nines. The board ran out , and the top two pair knocked ClockWyze out in second place with $30,618 for the effort.
Julian Verse, better known to his parents as Va Shon Watkins, claimed the FTOPS Event 4 title to go along with his FTOPS X main event victory. He was awarded $45,927 for the feat.
Event 5 brought a different crowd to the tables with a $200 + $16 limit hold’em short-handed event. The 6-max game began with a $150K guarantee, but the 1,603 players pumped the prize pool up to $212,600. Full Tilt pro Chau Giang hosted the action that ended with the following six players seated at the final table:
tom10167 1,624,496
killinda_sts 1,432,881
TheMrC 568,256
TOPTEN 301,235
pool_shark_10 177,980
benvo123 147,152
In order, the short stacks began leaving. benvo123 was the first to go, when he got all-in after a flop holding pocket threes. killinda_sts called with but hit an ace on the turn to eliminated benvo123 in sixth place with $7,228.40. pool_shark_10 was next and pushed his 70,712 chips all-in with . tom10167 called with , and the flop gave the queen to top 10167 to solidify the outcome. pool_shark_10 left in fifth place with $11,267.80.
TheMrC got involved with killinda_sts to see a flop and turn before committing the rest of his chips with . killinda_sts called with A-7 but found a 7 on the river to knock TheMrC out in fourth place with $15,732.40. And despite killinda_sts’ run at the final table thus far, he lost some chips and then got into a pot with tom10167. They saw a flop of , and more betting led to the on the turn, at which point killinda_sts called a bet to be all-in with . tom10167 showed , and the on the river changed nothing, sending killinda_sts out in third place with $21,047.40.
Heads-up began as follows:
tom10167 2,625,765
TOPTEN 1,626,235
The duo played for some time, during which TOPTEN gained the chip lead. Not stopping there, he finally reduced tom10167 to a stack of less than 100K, which got committed all-in through posting the big blind on the next hand. tom10167 had only , and TOPTEN showed . The board ran out , and tom10167 was relegated to second place in the tournament, along with the corresponding $29,551.40 cash prize.
TOPTEN won Event 5 of the series, which was worth $44,327 in prize money.